Soot's $7.2M Seed Round: CEO, CTO, & Investor, Kobie Fuller

In this episode, Molly O'Shea sits down with Jake Harper and Amol Kapoor of Soot, a spatial, self-organizing file system that revolutionizes how they interact with their data. Joining the group is Soot investor Kobie Fuller, GP at Upfront Ventures. Jake talks about Soot as a consumer-grade vector database with a user-friendly GUI, simplifying data navigation and making AI tooling accessible. He emphasizes the importance of beauty and user experience, aiming to empower and inspire users. Amol also highlights how the company prioritizes seamless user experience with advanced AI capabilities hidden behind the scenes. They aim to empower users with a spatial, self-organizing view of their data, enabling intuitive exploration and collaboration. From an investor’s perspective, Kobie believes Soot is a game-changer in how we interact with digital assets, emphasizing its spatial organization and intuitive design, and its ability to streamline content discovery, along with its potential to revolutionize file management. Soot's founders discuss how their platform is revolutionizing design workflows and empowering creatives to share their work in new ways. – Follow on Twitter https://x.com/MollySOShea https://x.com/kobiefuller https://x.com/freakthefilter https://x.com/theahura_ -- Check out: Upfront Ventures: https://upfront.com/ Soot: https://www.soot.com/ . – Subscribe to Sourcery: https://www.sourcery.vc/ – Companies mentioned: Soot: https://www.soot.com/ Upfront Ventures: https://upfront.com/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/ Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ap/ Zoox: https://zoox.com/ Google: https://www.google.com/ Figma: https://www.figma.com/ Goat: https://www.goat.com/ Telfar: https://telfar.net/ Meta: https://about.meta.com/ Gucci: https://www.gucci.com/us/en/ Jordan: https://www.nike.com/jordan Miles and Milan: https://milesandmilan.com/ Revolve: https://www.revolve.com/ Dazed: https://www.dazeddigital.com/ – TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Introduction & Context (02:00) Kobe's Perspective on Soot (03:33) Jake's Explanation of Soot: (07:09) Emphasis on Beauty & Emotional Response (09:50) Team Background & Founding Story (12:30) Team Composition & Hiring (16:37) Soot Demo & Functionality (22:37) Kobe's User Testing Experience (25:24) Technical Aspects & Underlying AI (29:40) Graphics Performance & Design Decisions (33:20) Target Customer Profiles & Future Features (37:05) Soot as a Vector Database & User Feedback (38:23) The Rainforest Analogy & Search Efficiency (43:22) Design in Service of Technology (44:20) Closing Thoughts